ROMAIN Perraud is confident his injury problems are now behind him, adding: “I will fight for this club and for these fans.” Perraud’s encouraging first season in England was cut short in May, when he suffered a fracture in his foot. The Frenchman battled back in time to feature towards the end of pre-season, before struggling with other injury niggles which kept him out of action. However, the 25-year-old is now back available and has featured in each of the past four fixtures, albeit without completing a full 90 minutes yet. Asked how difficult the period was for him during his injury lay-off,
Romain Perraud said: “It was tough for me because I had no pre-season. I used some Premier League games to try to be fit and to improve. But it was a little bit frustrating, but now it’s behind me and I’m trying to look forward and be ready for the next fixtures and help my teammates, help everybody, because I will fight for this club and for these fans.”
Asked if he feels he rushed back from his previous injury,
Romain Perraud added: “When you are a player, you want to try and train with everybody in the squad. But when I came back, I think I was not really fit, because I had another injury one week later, so that was very disappointing. But it is part of the game. Now it is behind me and I just want to be focused on my football and especially to take some points for this team. I wanted to be ready, but an injury can be good for a player sometimes, because you can be calm after this and you can have another vision of the situation. Now to be honest, after a few months out, I just want to be fit.”
Discussing his current level of fitness, having played 45 minutes and half an hour in Saints’ past two fixtures either side of the international break,
Romain Perraud said: “At the moment, touch wood, I have no pain. So it’s nice. I’m fit at the moment. So if the gaffer needs me, I will be ready to fight, definitely. Last year I played maybe 20 or 21 games in the Premier League and some games in the cup. I needed time to adapt. And after, I was better month after month. Just now I need to be ready to be fit and try to play my football, definitely.”
It has been a difficult time on the pitch for Saints since the impressive victory over Chelsea at the end of August, in which Perraud teed up Adam Armstrong’s winning goal. The club have suffered three defeats on the spin, have slipped to 16th in the Premier League table, just one point outside the relegation zone, and head to rampant title favourites Manchester City this weekend. Discussing the mood amongst the squad since Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Everton,
Romain Perraud explained: “To begin, I think everybody knows what happens when you have three defeats in a row. It’s not nice for the fans, for the club, for everybody. We need to react, definitely. This weekend will be a very big challenge for us, but sometimes it is good to play against these (big) teams, because you want to do more. You need to do more and for sure we need to react and compete against them.”
